Trial of Alaa Abd El Fattah and 24 others set for March 23

Cairo Court of Cassation has set the trial date of activist Alaa Abd El Fattah and 24 others to March 23, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

Abd El Fattah and other defendants were arrested following a protest by No to Military Trials campaigners in front of the Shura Council last November. They were accused of protesting without notifying the authorities in violation of the contentious protest law.

23 of the defendants were released pending investigation, except Abd El Fattah and Ahmed Abdel Rahman, who have both been in detention since then.

Abd El Fattah was arrested from his home in Haram, where he and his wife Manal Hassan were beaten by police forces coming to arrest him.

Since then, Abd El Fattah has been hdetained pending investigations. His family have continuously condemned his administrative detention and the judiciary's reluctance to set a trial date, slamming this as a form of mistreatment.

The investigations allegedly revealed that Abd El Fattah attacked a police officer tasked with securing the Shura Council demonstration, stealing his wireless device with the help of other protesters before running away.

After confiscating his laptop, prosecutors purportedly found Abd El Fattah had called for the Shura Council protest.

With the rest of the defendants, Abd El Fattah is accused of illegal gathering, organizing a protest without notifying the authorities, possession of illegal arms, blocking traffic, attacking public servants and thuggery.

Prosecutors claimed that 350 people joined the protest, chanting against the state and inciting against the authorities.

Investigations said that police forces tasked with securing the Shura Council allegedly asked the protesters to leave but protesters insisted in continuing with the protest and attacked police personnel.

A group of activists presented themselves in front of the prosecution acknowledging that they also called for the protest in solidarity with Abd El Fattah but they were not arrested, a move Abdel Fattah's family said demonstrated that the prominent activist was being politically targeted.

Abd El Fattah was arrested in 2005 under the reign of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for his participation in anti-regime protests, after which he was imprisoned for over one month. He was arrested for the second time in 2011 on charges of killing Coptic protesters in front of Maspero, but was later acquitted.